Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements; Berg Violin Concerto; Bartók Concerto for Orchestra. Vilde Frang violin; Juilliard Orchestra, Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
I caught this Prom concert en route from my home to Salzburg, with an evening to spare in London before an early Eurostar train. I remember Salonen conducting the Bartok work about 10 years ago with the Philharmonia, and enjoyed his reading of it. That would be an interesting contrast with this young group of players. The Berg Concerto I can never quite get my head around, but am always happy to have another go, and having the Stravinsky on the programme was an extra bonus. Apparently this concert comes about as a result of an extended yearly set of workshops between selected Julliard and RCM players, sponsored by Elton John, a former RCM alumnus!
Perhaps predictably – because it is such an enjoyable work – the Bartok was the performance I enjoyed most. Throughout the concert there was a real buzz about the orchestra, all players on the edge of their professional careers and clearly really loving being in the RAH, under the spotlights, with a packed out audience and a famous conductor. In the Bartok Salonen really put them through their paces , with some spectacularly fast speeds in the last two movements. But articulation from all sections, amidst the flurry of notes, remained absolutely precise and centred, and a particular shout to the trumpets and woodwind for their accuracy and clarity. The strings impressed earlier in the work with their richness and depth, and there was also some tremendously quiet violin playing, almost on the edge of silence. I wouldn’t say this was a better performance than the one I heard of this work last year with Hrusa and the Berlin Phil, but it had great spontaneity somehow, and one felt the performance was an act of exploration by both the conductor and orchestra. I felt I was hearing some of it for the first time. Apart from one small blip, where someone held on to a note a fraction too long, this band sounded up there with the best international orchestras – and indeed some of this group might be in one of them in a couple of years!
The Berg concerto for me remains a mystery – I once again found myself wrapped up in the sound world and only momentarily lost focus, but I never get a clear grip on the structure of the work except that it’s going to end up with an enormous climax and the quotation from the Bach cantata. After 6 or 7 different live hearings, I ought to do better than that, but I still find it opaque…..Vilde Frange was clearly an excellent soloist though to me (sitting near her in Row 1 of the Side Stalls) her ‘voice’ sounded quite small for the RAH and I wondered how she came across up in the Balcony. She was clearly enjoying playing with this young orchestra, and at one point, maybe two thirds of the way , through she actually turned her back on the audience and played with acute attention to the violin section – I loved that sense of spontaneity and forgetting about the audience!
The Stravinsky work I’ve heard a number of times too – it never has much resonance with me. Oddly its opening sounds a bit like the first few chords of Vaughan Williams’ 4th Symphony . The latter was written in the 30’s, the Stravinsky in the 40’s. Could there be any chance Stravinsky had come across VW 4 – ummm, no, probably not…………..As I listened to it I thought – bits of this sound like the Rite of Spring, and some like the Rake’s Progress, and sure enough, Wikipedia tells me Stravinsky was recording the Rite of Spring just before he worked on the Symphony, and of course the Rake’s Progress was written in the same decade ,
Very agreeably there was an encore, a Galop by Stravinsky, which was huge fun.
It’s such a tough time for young musicians at the moment. I hope all these excellent young players have great careers before them………
John's musical journey 